At the side of the arena, the teachers looked with impassive faces at the terrific display of power from the two students. "Hm, looks like there will be some interesting students this year." Levina stated, looking towards the arena with an amused light in her eyes. With shadowy smoke, leftover from the great tsunami of kei energy blocking the way she looked towards the green clothed teacher.
"Virden, if you would be so kind." Teacher Virden nodded his head, waving a hand, all of the rampaging kei elements and smoke seemed to be attracted to his palm and sucked into a point. With a slight gesture of his fingers, the compressed mass disappeared. With the smoke and energy blocking the students' sight now gone they all stared at the arena with curiosity among other emotions flashing in their eyes, hoping to see the final outcome.
Amidst the suddenly deafening silence the outcome was clear. Standing there was Lyon, the boy's eyes seemed to glow emerald due to the power running through his veins having not calmed completely. While slightly bruised, he was overall unhurt, looking towards the other participant of the fight, the students couldn't help the surprise coloring their faces.
Alicia had managed to survive the explosive skill of Azera unscathed. It was hard for the students to wrap their minds around it, but the evidence spoke for itself. Despite looking slightly pale, there was no other inclination that the girl had even been involved in a fight. "This was my loss." The girl spoke calmly, hardly a ripple could be seen on her indifferent face.
"You look perfectly fine to continue, are you sure you want to resign from the fight?" This time, Teacher Kor spoke, giving rise to the question in all the students' minds. "I no longer have any kei energy left and if I continued the result would be the same." Once again, Alicia responded without any noticeable change in tone or facial expression.
"I think this fight is a draw, I myself am almost out of kei energy anyway," Lyon spoke up at this point. Alicia had not said another word since her admission of defeat and Lyon was mildly curious if that was due to shock, or if she was truly so indifferent. Hearing his words, Alicia looked at him for a moment, then turned her head and asked Teacher Levina "Can I fight again?" Taking that as his cue to leave, Lyon turned and walked back up to his seat on the third row of the auditorium.
Alicia watched Lyon leave from the corner of her eyes with an indecipherable glint in her eyes. Teacher Levina, having watched enough, took the lead in directing Alicia back to her seat as well. "Little girl, let everyone get a turn would you, the outcome of the matches isn't even the main point of them in the first place." Now THAT, got the attention of not just Alicia, but the whole silent classroom. After showing Alicia back to her seat on the second row, Teacher Levina decided to give the students a little demonstration.
The four teachers all looked towards one another, 'These are some of the most arrogant brats we've had for sure.' Teacher Levina took the lead and began speaking again, "Ah, I see we have not fully enlightened you to the full purpose of these tests so let us set the record straight now." At this point, Teachers Kor and Katra stepped forward and held out a hand each. With one hand outstretched towards the students a small flicker of flame appeared on Kor's hand, while a hexagonal snowflake fluttered to life in Katra's hand.
Seeing the students attention was successfully captured from the fight, Levina waved a hand towards the two teachers, "As you can see and probably remember, Teachers Kor and Katra utilize entirely different kei attributes. What many of you might not know is that with the right training even people who many would consider incapable of working with each other can accomplish the impossible." Kor and Katra moved at this point, both of their hands moving away, but under the impetus of their energy, the snowflake and flame stayed where they were. Slowly, the flame and ice grew closer to each other, a special energy seemed to emanate from the point of contact between the opposing forces of nature.
Then, with a flash of abrupt splendor, the two forces disappeared leaving a circle of air and swirling kei energy approximately one meter in diameter that caused the very space it occupied to appear indistinct. Looking at the result, most of the students in the room couldn't help feeling confused.
Unable to resist, one of the students that had been sitting on the front row raised their hand. Seeming excited for some reason, Teacher Levina nodded to the young dwarf girl to speak. "Hello Teacher, as interesting as creating a hot and cold system is, I don't see how that explains the meaning of these spars?" The girl spoke in an assertive manner that was more than proof enough of her lineage.
As if waiting for that very moment, the previously stable pocket of air and kei energy shuddered and the combined smoky substance seemed to combine into a form of clouds. One, Two, Three, precipitation fell down in the hushed auditorium. Only, instead of rain small ice flakes and bits of flame trailed from the newly formed cloud.
"The very first step in becoming teammates who can achieve the impossible together is to fight. You fight constantly against each other, and one day you'll realize that in the midst of all that fighting you have become the best of partners." Teacher Virden spoke out this time, a somewhat fond look of reminiscence on his face for a brief moment.
Seeing the spectacle before them, all of the students' expressions seemed to say the same thing, 'So, things can work that way too? How come I never knew about this?' They were puzzled yet excited to learn more.
"Now now, I assure you that if you manage to make it through this month there will be hope for you to do the same things in the future and maybe even more." Teacher Kor was the one to calm the students down this time, although it could still be seen that he was feeling pretty proud of himself.
"Now, let's get back to the matches shall we," Teacher Katra, feeling that things might never get back on track otherwise, finally decided to speak out and address the classroom. With that said, there was a rushing sound as all the kids in the room raised their hands, with the exception of Lyon and Alicia. Finding this as good as it was going to get, Teacher Katra looked towards Levina and upon her nod picked a student to begin the assessments again.
"You, the little dwarf girl, what's your name?" Teacher Katra asked. "Ah, ma apologies Teacher, my name is Rita and it sure is a pleasure to meet cha!" The now named Rita grinned, and jumped from her seat on the fourth level down to the sparkling platform.
About five minutes later, Rita was sulking back up to her seat, her unfortunate opponent laying half conscious on the side of the arena. Lyon, Alicia, and Derrick all looked towards Rita causing her to shiver and look around at each of them and then grin like she had found a fun new toy. Each of them continued to look around the room hoping to find another worthy opponent.
Having decided to get his turn done, Derrick raised his hand and stepped towards the platform after getting permission from the teachers. Much like the last fight, Derrick won his match pretty easily. After that, a series of somewhat boring fights occurred in a row.
There were beasts of all types, weapons of every variety, there were even multiple plant innate spirits that lead to some flashy scenes. The problem occurred, when the students realized that half of the 50 students were an obvious notch stronger than the other half.
Finally, there was only one more match between a possible half elemental student and another student that seemed supremely average at first glance, even more so than the 'perfectly average' Derrick. Upon closer glance, it became clear that there was something different about this student. The two students faced each other, cupping hands as a sign of respect as told by the teachers.
The half elemental kid immediately moved, a Trident appearing in his hands, while he chanted in an obscure language that could only be taught by spirits, a mini tsunami seemed to flash into existence. He then pierced towards the strange kid, a rush of water coming from both sides.
The other kid tried to dodge backwards, only to be forced ahead by a third wave, invisible to the eyes until now as it appeared lashing at the boy. The Trident Spirit wielding teenager grinned, feeling the end of the fight and his victory just a second away. Suddenly, a feeling of intense danger followed by a scorching pain was the last thing he felt before he fell headfirst to the arena floor. His trident disappeared back into his Spirit Door.
The seemingly normal kid won the match, that too in an instant, but it was not that outcome that caused the silence. No, the silence was caused by the Innate Spirit he had revealed. It was a baby angel, female by appearance, with a traditional toga-like dress made of white gold and obsidian colored cloth.
There resting on her little back, were four pairs of wings, not white like normal, nor black like the fallen angel branch, but a shimmering glossy gray that radiated both light and dark elemental kei energy.
"That shouldn't even be possible," Lyon muttered, looking just as confused and lost as everyone else. "Unless," Thinking of a possibility, Lyon glanced at the teachers, looking for any signs of them having the same thoughts as him. If they were, their poker faces were too good for him to see through.
Lyon turned his head, deciding not to care about it at the moment, and happened to catch the other teens eye as he went back to his seat, conveniently right in front of Lyon. "Hello," the boy smiled, a surprisingly refreshing thing to see. "My name is Zesher, let's get along well." Zesher spoke with a quiet voice, but for some reason he couldn't put his finger on, Lyon didn't think that Zesher was anywhere near as even tempered as he seemed to be.
Pushing those thoughts aside, after all most people were prone to fake some emotions when uncomfortable, so Lyon stood and reached out to shake hands with his new classmate. Looking back, he would surely appreciate the irony, and wish he had paid more attention, but that is a subject for another time.